Territory of today's France Kingdom of the Western Franks Since
Louis VII (1137–80), the highest precedence amongst the vassals (
Prince-bishops and secular nobility) of the French crown was enjoyed by those whose benefice or temporal fief was a
pairie, i.e. carried the exclusive rank of
pair; within the first (i.e. clerical) and second (noble) estates, the first three of the original twelve
anciennes pairies were ducal, the next three comital
comté-pairies: •
Bishop-counts of Beauvais (in Picardy) •
Bishop-counts of Châlons (in Champagne) • Bishop-counts of
Noyon (in Picardy) •
Count of Toulouse, until united to the crown in 1271 by marriage •
Count of Flanders (Flandres in French), which is in the Low countries and was confiscated in 1299, though returned in 1303 •
Count of Champagne, until united to the crown (in 1316 by marriage, conclusively in 1361) Later other countships (and duchies, even baronies) have been raised to this French peerage, but mostly as
apanages (for members of the royal house) or for foreigners; after the 16th century all new peerages were always duchies and the medieval countship-peerages had died out, or were held by royal princes Other French countships of note included those of: •
Count of Angoulême, later Duke •
Count of Anjou, later Duke •
Count of Auvergne •
Count of Bar, later Duke •
Count of Blois •
Count of Boulogne •
Count of Foix •
Count of Montpensier •
Count of Poitiers Parts of today's France long within other kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire •
Freigraf ("free count") of Burgundy (i.e. present Franche-Comté) • The
Dauphiné The Holy Roman Empire See also above for parts of present France In Germany A
Graf ruled over a territory known as a
Grafschaft ('county'). See also various comital and related titles; especially those actually reigning over a principality:
Gefürsteter Graf,
Landgraf,
Reichsgraf; compare
Markgraf,
Burggraf,
Pfalzgraf (
see Imperial quaternions).
Northern Italian states The title of
Conte is very prolific on the peninsula. In the eleventh century,
Conti like the Count of Savoy or the Norman Count of Apulia, were virtually sovereign lords of broad territories. Even apparently "lower"-sounding titles, like
Viscount, could describe powerful dynasts, such as the
House of Visconti which ruled a major city such as
Milan. The essential title of a feudatory, introduced by the Normans, was
signore, modeled on the French
seigneur, used with the name of the
fief. By the fourteenth century,
conte and the Imperial title
barone were virtually synonymous. Some titles of a count, according to the particulars of the patent, might be inherited by the eldest son of a Count. Younger brothers might be distinguished as "X dei conti di Y" ("X of the counts of Y"). However, if there is no male to inherit the title and the count has a daughter, in some regions she could inherit the title. Many Italian counts left their mark on Italian history as individuals, yet only a few
contadi (countships; the word
contadini for inhabitants of a "county" remains the Italian word for "peasant") were politically significant principalities, notably: • Norman Count of
Apulia •
Count of Savoy, later Duke (also partly in France and in Switzerland) •
Count of Asti •
Count of Montferrat (Monferrato) •
Count of Montefeltro •
Count of Tusculum In Austria The principalities tended to start out as margraviate or (promoted to) duchy, and became nominal archduchies within the Habsburg dynasty; noteworthy are: • Count of Tyrol •
Count of Cilli • Count of Schaumburg
In the Low Countries Apart from various small ones, significant were: • in present-day Belgium: •
Count of Flanders (Vlaanderen in Dutch), but only the small part east of the river Schelde remained within the empire; the far larger west, an original French
comté-pairie became part of the French realm •
Count of Hainaut •
Count of Namur, later a margraviate •
Count of Leuven (Louvain), later a dukedom •
Count of Loon • in the presentday Netherlands: •
Count of Guelders later Dukes of Guelders •
Count of Holland •
Count of Zeeland •
Count of Zutphen In Switzerland . •
Count of Geneva • Count of
Neuchâtel •
Count of Toggenburg • Count of
Kyburg •
Count de Salis-Soglio (also in the UK, Canada and Australia) •
Count de Salis-Seewis •
Count of Panzutti In other continental European countries Holy See Count/Countess was one of the noble titles granted by the Pope as a temporal sovereign, and the title's holder was sometimes informally known as a papal count/papal countess or less so as a Roman count/Roman countess, but mostly as count/countess. The comital title, which could be for life or hereditary, was awarded in various forms by popes and Holy Roman Emperors since the Middle Ages, infrequently before the 14th century, and the pope continued to grant the comital and other noble titles even after 1870, it was largely discontinued in the mid 20th-century, on the accession of
John XXIII. The Papacy and the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies might appoint counts palatine with no particular territorial fief. Until 1812 in some regions, the purchaser of land designated "feudal" was ennobled by the noble seat that he held and became a
conte. This practice ceased with the formal abolition of feudalism in the various principalities of early-19th century Italy, last of all in the
Papal States.
In Poland Poland was notable throughout its history for not granting titles of nobility. This was on the premise that one could only be born into nobility, outside rare exceptions. Instead, it conferred
non-hereditary courtly or civic roles. The noble titles that were in use on its territory were mostly of foreign provenance and usually subject to the process of
indygenat, naturalisation.
In Hungary Somewhat similar to the native privileged class of nobles found in Poland, Hungary also had a class of
Conditional nobles.
On the Iberian peninsula As opposed to the plethora of hollow "gentry" counts, only a few countships ever were important in medieval
Iberia; most territory was firmly within the
Reconquista kingdoms before counts could become important. However, during the 19th century, the title, having lost its high rank (equivalent to that of
Duke), proliferated.
Portugal Portugal itself started as a countship in 868, but became a
kingdom in 1139 (see:
County of Portugal). Throughout the
history of Portugal, especially during the
constitutional monarchy many other countships were created.
Spain of a count (Spanish heraldry) In Spain, no countships of wider importance exist, except in the former Spanish march. •
County of Barcelona, the initial core of the
Principality of Catalonia, later one of the states of the
Crown of Aragon, which became one of the two main components of the Spanish crown. •
Count of Aragon •
Count of Castile •
Count of Galicia •
Count of Lara •
Count Cassius, progenitor of the
Banu Qasi •
County of Urgell, later integrated into the
Principality of Catalonia. • The other
Catalan counties were much smaller and were absorbed early into the
County of Barcelona (between parentheses the annexation year):
County of Girona (897),
County of Besalú,
County of Osona, which included the nominal
County of Manresa (1111),
County of Berga and
County of Conflent (1117) and
County of Cerdanya (1118). From 1162 these counties, together with that of Barcelona, were merged into the
Principality of Catalonia, a sovereign state that absorbed some other counties:
County of Roussillon (1172),
County of Pallars Jussà (1192),
County of Empúries (1402),
County of Urgell (1413) and
County of Pallars Sobirà (1487), giving the Principality its definitive shape.
South Eastern Europe Bulgaria In the
First Bulgarian Empire, a
komit was a hereditary provincial ruler under the
tsar documented since the reign of
Presian (836-852) The
Cometopouli dynasty was named after its founder, the
komit of
Sredets.
Montenegro and Serbia The title of
Serdar was used in the
Principality of Montenegro and the
Principality of Serbia as a noble title below that of
Voivode equivalent to that of Count.
Crusader states •
Count of Edessa •
Count of Tripoli (1102–1288)
Scandinavia In
Denmark and historically in
Denmark-Norway the title of count (
greve) is the highest rank of nobility used in the modern period. Some Danish/Dano-Norwegian countships were associated with
fiefs, and these counts were known as "feudal counts" (
lensgreve). They rank above ordinary (titular) counts, and their position in the Danish aristocracy as the highest-ranking noblemen is broadly comparable to that of dukes in other European countries. With the first free
Constitution of Denmark of 1849 came a complete abolition of the privileges of the nobility. Since then the title of count has been granted only to members of the
Danish royal family, either as a replacement for a princely title when marrying a commoner, or in recent times, instead of that title in connection with divorce. Thus the first wife of
Prince Joachim of Denmark, the younger son of
Margrethe II of Denmark, became
Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg on their divorce—initially retaining her title of princess, but losing it on her remarriage. In the Middle Ages the title of
jarl (earl) was the highest title of nobility. The title was eventually replaced by the title of duke, but that title was abolished in Denmark and Norway as early as the Middle Ages. Titles were only reintroduced with the introduction of absolute monarchy in 1660, with count as the highest title. In Sweden the rank of count is the highest rank conferred upon nobles in the modern era and are, like their Danish and Norwegian counterparts, broadly comparable to that of dukes in other European countries. Unlike the rest of Scandinavia, the title of duke is still used in Sweden, but only by members of the royal family not considered part of the nobility. ==Equivalents==